Electronic Trading Newsflashes

The international derivatives market Eurex received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to launch Eurex US, its new all-electronic futures exchange, as a designated U.S. contract market. In response to the regulatory nod Eurex confirmed that trading is set to begin on February 8 at 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Initially, Eurex, located in Chicago, will offer trading in futures and options on two, five and 10-year Treasury notes and on 30-year Treasury bonds. Meanwhile, the Clearing Corporation announced that it's prepared to provide full clearing and settlement services to Eurex beginning Sunday, February 8. Savvis Communications, the global- managed IP-services provider, will deliver market data from Eurex US via the Consolidated Exchange Feed, a real-time data feed for exchange data operated by the exchange organization.

Eurex is expected to bring price competition to Chicago's futures exchanges, which have had a monopoly in trading listed-futures contracts. On Monday, the Chicago Board of Trade reduced exchange transaction fees for all customers electronically trading CBOT U.S. Treasury futures and options on futures products. Certain exchange transaction fees will be waived in its entirety.

In addition, the CBOT plans to launch trading in German debt-futures - Bund, Bobl and Schatz futures, pending review by the CFTC. The contracts will be traded on CBOT's electronic-trading platform.

----

Jordan & Jordan - a financial-technology services and consulting firm - hired Jim Northey to address client needs within the futures and options industry and to support Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol initiatives.

Northey bring 15 years of experience as an implementer, manager and consultant in the financial industry, with a focus on electronic-trading systems, clearing systems and application-programming interfaces for derivatives exchanges.

Most recently Northey was the principal of LaSalle Technology Management Inc. Prior to forming LaSalle, he was a managing director at The Options Clearing Corporation and an adjunct lecturer at the Michigan Technological University School of Business and Economics. Northey will continue his role as the chair of the FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) Global Derivatives Committee.

----

BNY Brokerage, a subsidiary of The Bank of New York, sold The Commission Optimizer software product to Eze Castle Software, a Boston-based provider of trade-order-management technology. As part of the deal, BNY Brokerage product support team will join Eze Castle to help clients make the transition.

In addition, BNY Brokerage and Eze Castle have developed an alliance to work together in offering the product to institutional clients. Under terms of the alliance, BNY Brokerage will be a preferred broker for commission-management services.

Commission Optimizer is a comprehensive commission-budgeting and expense-management tool used by investment managers, directors of trading, market data services and broker coordinators to systematically plan, monitor and report on all aspects of fund expenses.

----

Macgregor entered a strategic relationship with Pipeline Trading Systems to provide a seamless interface from Macgregor's global buy-side order-management system to Pipeline's alternative-trading system (ATS). Pipeline's ATS is built on a hidden-order book to let institutions anonymously negotiate large blocks of stock in NYSE-listed companies, Nasdaq stocks, and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

In the release, Stephen Alepa, executive vice president of Macgregor Financial Network, states "adding leading edge companies like Pipeline to the stable of liquidity sources available over the Macgregor Financial Network (MFN), adds to our clients' choices for achieving best execution." MFN provides connections to over 200 broker/dealers, electronic communications networks and ATSs.